Field Conduct

Our goal is to make soccer a fun and rewarding experience for all participants. This includes players, coaches, referees and spectators. Parents’ conduct at games has a strong influence on the quality of the experience. Most parents contribute positively to the soccer experience, but sometimes the behavior of a few ruins the experience for everyone. We hope that this message will make you aware of certain issues that continually occur so that we can all work together to reduce or eliminate them.

Please yell only encouragement to the players.

Refrain from giving instruction to the players during the game. Soccer is a game of spontaneity and creativity. Constant coaching from the sidelines stifles this creativity and hurts player development in the long run. Often the inputs are incorrect and contradictory, leaving the players bewildered and confused. Worse yet, many youth players quit sports because of all the pressure and criticism. Consider this scenario, which happens frequently. Player has the ball near the goal. Dad yells 'shoot'. Assistant coach yells 'cross'. Coach yells 'pass back and run to goal'. The player wants to fake out his opponent then shoot. Now he's confused and is likely to hesitate so that the opponents have time to box him in. Then he gets a poor result no matter what he does. Let the players play so they can learn from their mistakes and reap the rewards of their successes. Practice is the time to work on developing tactics.

Please support our Referees.

Referee development is part of the MYSC soccer program. Most of our referees are players or coaches in our club. We have a shortage of referees. About half of all new referees quit after one season, mainly because of abuse from coaches and spectators. Referees deserve our respect and support even if we don’t agree with every call. It is likely that the referee knows the rules better than you do. Referees make mistakes like everyone else, even at the professional level. Sometimes the referee must give instructions to the players. Please do not contradict or questions these instructions.

Please Follow Club and League Rules.

League rules can be found on the NCYS Association web Site League Rules We’d like to emphasize three in particular:

No pets.

Pets are not permitted anywhere in the field areas at games or practices except for service animals.

Spectator Area.

Spectators and coaches are allowed only on the sideline between the penalty areas (the big box in front of the goal). Spectators and coaches are never allowed behind the goal line. Spectators and coaches are also required to stay two yards away from the touch line (side field line).

Team/Spectator Placement.

The basic rule is that all players and spectators for one team are on one side of the field and the players and spectators for the other team are the other side of the field. The home team chooses the side of the field they want. Starting this year some clubs have adopted a policy that players and coaches from both teams are on one side of the field and all spectators are on the other side. MYSC has not adopted this policy. NCYSA league rules are allowing these clubs to implement this policy for U11 and above. When your team is the home team use the basic rule and inform the other team which side of the field each team will occupy. When your team is the visiting team abide by the instructions from the visiting coach.

When you are at the game, relax, enjoy the game and let the kids play!